Opinion: As an aerosol scientist, I know schools need masks, HEPA filters and outdoor lunches

The school year is beginning across Colorado while the Delta variant of COVID is racing through children at higher rates than at any previous time. Although we are all bone-tired of the pandemic, we need to take stronger measures to protect our unvaccinated kids. We all want children to attend school in person and avoid bouncing to online modalities. To make that happen, all Colorado schools need to follow the near-unanimous advice from state, regional, and national public health agencies and medical groups to mandate indoor mask-wearing, install more portable HEPA filters, and institute safer lunchtime procedures to slow COVID transmission.

The SARS-CoV-2 virus continues to be an ever-stronger adversary and is now far more contagious, even among young children. The delta variant is now the dominant COVID-19 strain in Colorado. That is, in part, because people infected with Delta can harbor a thousand times more virus than the original strain, and some vaccinated individuals can spread it.

Children under 18 are being hospitalized with serious cases both in higher numbers and at a faster rate of increase than at any point thus far. While most children recover from COVID, some die, and an increasingly high number are showing “long-COVID” symptoms, including serious physical and neurological effects that could last a lifetime. Children infected at school can also spread the disease back to their homes, communities, the elderly, and the immunocompromised...

https://www.denverpost.com/2021/08/19/schools-masks-aerosol-hepa-filter-covid-19/